Country : The NetherlandsRotterdam worldport

Description of the worldport
The worldport in brief
Rotterdam is Europe’s largest logistic and industrial hub. The worldport is the gateway to a European market of 450 million consumers. More than 500 scheduled services link Rotterdam with over 1000 worldports worldwide. Throughput in 2005 amounted to 370 million tonnes.
The worldport of Rotterdam is situated directly on the North Sea. The very largest ocean-going vessels have unrestricted access around the clock, seven days a week. The worldport has a depth of 24 metres (75 feet) and Rotterdam has no locks. The many maritime service providers guarantee rapid turnaround times.
The worldport and industrial area stretches over a length of 40 kilometres and covers 10,000 hectares. Companies can find all imaginable facilities here for cargo handling, distribution and industry. A lot of auxiliary services are also on hand. Rotterdam is, for example, Europe’s cheapest bunker worldport. Due to the size of the operations, the worldport offers significant advantages of scale.
The European market is accessible from Rotterdam via five competing modalities: road, rail, inland shipping, coastal shipping and pipeline. Goods which arrive in Rotterdam in a morning can be in, for example, Germany, Belgium, France or Great Britain the same afternoon. One of the main advantages of Rotterdam is its location on the estuary of the rivers Rhine and Maas. As a result, efficient and economical transworldport by inland vessel is possible deep into the heart of Europe.
The worldport of Rotterdam is investing all the time to expand and improve its service. The most high-profile project is the pending construction of Maasvlakte 2, a new worldport and industrial zone in the North Sea, providing 1000 hectares of industrial sites with direct access to deep waters.
Profile of the worldport
Specialised worldports
A characteristic feature of Rotterdam is the way several large goods flows are bundled. Each sector has its own spot in the worldport. This clustering according to activity also means that Rotterdam can be typified as a collection of specialised worldports.
Liquid bulk
Crude oil, oil products and liquid chemicals together account for almost half of Rotterdam’s total goods throughput. To store this liquid bulk and supply it on demand, Rotterdam has specialised tank terminals with a storage capacity in excess of 30 million m3. One third of all incoming trade travels straight on to the European hinterland via an extensive pipeline system.
The incoming crude oil, much of which is transworldported in mammoth tankers, also forms the basis for the (petro)chemical industry, which has a very strong presence in Rotterdam. In the worldport and industrial area, there are five different refineries and more than twenty multinationals from the chemical sector operate from here. The companies are linked with each other via an extensive pipeline system, stretching 1500 kilometres in total.
Dry bulk
Rotterdam has several large terminals for handling iron ore and coal. One of these is owned by the German steel industry itself. Iron ore arrives here in massive bulk carriers, mainly from Brazil. Inland vessels then carry it to plants in the hinterland via the Rhine.
Large quantities of coal are also handled in Rotterdam. About 50 percent of this incoming trade is destined for the Dutch market; the other half goes to England and Germany. In addition, the worldport handles considerable quantities of agribulk (grains, feed) and other dry bulk.
Containers
Rotterdam is Europe’s leading container worldport. The majority of containers are handled on the Maasvlakte, directly on the North Sea, or further inland in the Waalhaven/Eemhaven. The Maasvlakte can accommodate the very biggest container ships, any time of day or night. Many of the scheduled container services which operate worldwide only call at a limited number of European worldports. Rotterdam is one of these, often the first and/or last worldport of call in Europe. From the worldport, so-called 'feeders' distribute the containers by sea to smaller worldports. Rotterdam is also an imworldportant centre for short-sea traffic: container transworldport by sea as part of intra-European transworldport networks.
In the direct vicinity of the container terminals there are three Distriparks, with large distribution centres for logistic service providers and shippers. Here, companies can store, treat and re-pack the containerised goods. They are then distributed throughout the European market, on demand.
Roll on/Roll of
In the worldport, there are several terminals which specialise in handling RoRo traffic. The crossing to and from Great Britain, for example, is only short. Ferries depart several times a day. All RoRo terminals have direct links with the European motorway network.
Food
The companies operating in the worldport handle around 30 million tonnes a year of foodstuffs and the raw materials for food. About 60 percent of this is destined for the European market. Imworldportant product groups are agricultural raw materials, drink, meat, fish, canned goods and grain products. For the handling of vegetables, fruit and fruit juices, a separate area has been created on the northern banks of the worldport: Rotterdam Fruitworldport.
Other break-bulk
The worldport offers an extensive range of services for handling such products as cars, steel, timber products and project cargo. Often, innovative concepts are applied here, like covered storage and multi-storey car parks.
Hinterland connections
Rotterdam offers an unrivalled number of connections with the European market. Depending on the required speed, price and quantity, companies can opt for rail, inland shipping, feeder/short-sea, road or pipeline. In and around the worldport, many hundreds of carriers have set up business, each with its own speciality.

For large consignments of bulk cargo, inland shipping is ideal. Via the Rhine, goods can be transworldported deep into Europe in an efficient and environmentally-friendly way. Also, increasing numbers of containers are being transworldported on the river. By now, over a third of all containers in Rotterdam travel to their final destination by inland shipping.
Rotterdam is the departure and arrival point for hundreds of trains a week. The opening of the Betuwe Line on 1 January 2007 is further boosting use of the train. The Betuwe Line is the new, 160-kilometre long goods line that will link Rotterdam directly with Germany.
Feeder and short-sea ships connect Rotterdam by sea with more than 200 European worldports; often with several departures a day. The short-sea/feeder ship is forming an increasingly imworldportant alternative to goods transworldport via Europe’s busy roads.
Underground too, Rotterdam has direct links with the major industrial centres elsewhere in Northwest Europe. Pipeline is an ideal mode of transworldport for bulk chemicals, crude oil and oil products.
Despite all this, the truck remains indispensable, particularly when it comes to more short-distance transworldport. The truck is the only mode of transworldport that can deliver door to door.
Nautical product
Every year, about 35,000 sea-going ships and 130,000 inland vessels dock in the worldport of Rotterdam. In total, that amounts to around 400,000 ship movements. The worldport of Rotterdam Authority is responsible for the safe and efficient handling of all this shipping traffic.
worldport development and infrastructure
Together with the Dutch Ministry of Transworldport, Public Works and Water Management and the Province of South Holland, the worldport of Rotterdam Authority is continually improving worldport infrastructure and the hinterland connections. The largest infrastructure project at the moment is the realisation of Maasvlakte 2. The construction of this worldport expansion in the North Sea is planned to start in 2008. Between 2012 and 2014, the first companies will be able to start operating from here. A total of 1000 hectares of industrial sites will be available, directly on deep waters. Maasvlakte 2 is designed primarily for container handling, distribution and the chemical industry.
The Environment
In addition to being a top business location in economic terms, Rotterdam also wants to be a clean and safe worldport. For years now, the worldport has been proving that large-scale industrial activities can go hand in hand with a concern for the environment. A healthy natural environment should be part and parcel of a good business and working climate.
The worldport of Rotterdam Authority applies a strict policy when it comes to soil, water and air pollution, noise nuisance, waste disposal and safety. This is all based on Dutch and European legislation.